48 HOURS IN VIETNAM!!

Yep!

We spent 48 hours in Vietnam!!

Mostly at Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and its environs.

We got to Vietnam on Friday afternoon, LEAP DAY - February 29, 2008 and left Sunday afternoon, March 2.



So what do ya do when you're in a foreign country for just 48 hours??

You tour the place at TURBO WARP SUPER SPEED!!!

And TOUR like you've never TOURED before!!!



Anywayz , we arrived at Tan Son Nhat International Airpot at around 2ish pm.

(There’s a one hour time diff between Manila and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).
Manila’s got the advanced time.
So you save like an hour on the 3 hour trip.)

For allz youz airportphiles – you’ll like it!

Real spacious, clean and nicely designed!

Ask Mr. Zachy Roboto below!

:)

We then hopped onto our hotel bus after gathering our luggage.

And then …

WHAM

HOLY COW!!

It hits you……

THERE ARE SOOOOOO MANY MOTORCYCLES IN VIETNAM!!!

HCMC has like around 11M peeps.

Imagine all the 11M peeps owning a motorcycle and ridin’ it all around the city!

1 lane for cars + 4 lanes for motorcycles.

Ya got the drift.

They even offer public transportation on the motorbikes.

You can either ride on one.

Or rent one and drive it around.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!!

Which brings me to the next question..

And the first question we faced the moment we stepped out on the streets of Vietnam.

How the heck do you cross the street??????

Like check out the vid below that I took one night.

We always had to cross THOSE streets/rotunda to get to our hotel or to the shopping areas.

However, over the course of our stay – we finally figured out how to be a VIETNAM pedestrian.

BE BRAVE AND MATHASUCKIN RUN!!

Hahahahahahahah!

Nah – You kinda got used to it.

There’s a certain rhythm and ebb to the vehicle traffic on each street.

And the motorcycles kinda “know” how to read the pedestrians.

They really try to avoid you.

I THINK.

We finally got to our hotel after around a 20 min ride from the airport.

We stayed at the stupendous REX HOTEL!

It’s got a kick Azz rooftop bar.

The REX ROOFTOP GARDEN BAR has been featured on numerous Asian magazines.

"Voted “ The Best Bar Of South East Asia” by the Newsweek Magazine in 1996.
Well-known as one of “1000 places to see before you die” listed by Patricia Schultz - the famous American Travel Writer." - Rex Hotel Website

It has a long, interesting history and was one of the most frequented places by international correspondents during the Vietnam War era.

We were given free welcome drinks to experience the bar.

Instead, we settled on experiencing the bar via the resto across from it that was serving the hotel's complementary and yummy breakfast buffets.

NO TIME TO DRINK WHEN YOU GOTTA TURBO TOUR!!!

Here are some pics of Rosabel and the kiddies posin’ at the bar during breakfast time.

Rex Hotel has that old school feel and charm.

Most of the rooms are designed very differently from each other.

For example - the room of Meg's fam (Rosabel's sis) had an absolutely huge bathroom and for some reason their toilet was elevated an extra 5 inches off the ground!

The rooms are nice and neat.

Nothin' much to crow about.

Jez' a nice place to sleep in after a tiring and exhausting day.

Don’t you dig those blinging gold sheets?

Bwehehehehehhehehhee……..

K.

Checked in.

&

Settled in.

Now where the heck do we go with just a few hours left before sunset??

We initially wanted to walk to the nearby Saigon River which was like a few blocks south of our location.

But we were absolutely terrified to cross that street/rotunda/boulevard full of motorcycles, cars, trucks etc..

Hmmmmmmm..

Why don’t we try that Ben Thanh Market that everyone’s been talkin' about?

It’s a few blocks to our west and we don’t have to put our lives in danger coz' the streets look smaller.

So off we went..

Rosabel holding Zachy‘s hand through the bustling streets of Saigon while I pushed and prodded Cara’s sturdy, “gamit-na gamit” stroller through the cobblestoned sidewalks.

After like a 10 min walk through the streets we finally got to our location and entered the market.

Heller???

It was just like one of those Bazaar’s we have during Xmas.

Masikip! (Tight)

n'

Mainit! (Hot)

Selection looked ok.

Gung ho shoppers would probably enjoy it.

But not a family of 4!

Especially with a rambunctious 2 year old on the stroller!

So we hightailed it outta there and flagged down a taxi to take us to our original destination.

The SAIGON RIVER.

Ya – I know

It’s really not one of the nicer touristy locations.

But anything near water tends to have a certain feel.

It was also nice to get away from all the motorcycles and all the hubbub of the busy streets.

Of course…

Our first taxi ride in HCMC and the driver stiffs us for 186,000 DONG (Php 500)!!!

Being the tourists that we were – we forked over the amount coz' we didn’t know any better.

I just thought that TAXIS were REALLY that expensive in Vietnam since no one really had cars!

Go figure …

We found out later in our trip that the same distance – jez costs 40,000 DONG only (Php 100)!!

SO please – if ever u go to HCMC – your cabbie is cheatin u when…..

While we were checkin out the river we noticed a KIM Travel office nearby.

Rosabel actually checked them out online while we were in Manila and tried to book some sightseeing tours.

We didn’t get to do it then so....

WHATTACOINCIDENCE!

We then took the opportunity to setup our day tour for Saturday.

While we were deciding whether to go on the Mekong Delta whole day tour or the Cao Dai Temple/Cu Chi tunnel whole day tour -- (We chose the latter. More on that adventure later) -- the travel agents assisting us asked whether we would be interested in a Saigon River cruise.

They offered their entire Chinese Junk Cruise boat to us for a rental of one hour since we had to meet the Castillo clan for dinner at 7.

(It was already around 430 pm at that time)

They offered the entire boat to us for one hour for only USD 45!!

The usual tour started at 7pm, lasted 2 hours and was like USD 12 per head.

But since they knew we were short on time.,

They were willing to make an earlier trip and less money to accommodate us.

*ROSABEL'S TERRIFIC TRAVEL TIP:
IF YOU CAN, DO NOT BOOK WITH KIM TRAVEL ONLINE.
IT WOULD BE BETTER IF YOU BOOK WITH THEM WHEN YOU GET TO VIETNAM! WE FOUND OUT THAT IT'S 100 PERCENT CHEAPER!

Not bad huh?

An exclusive boat!

So then we started texting/calling the Castillos to see if they wanted to join us since the boat could carry around 10 to 20 peeps.

It turns out that most of them were too busy shopping and couldn’t make it to the boat.

As for us – we were already getting desperate to do something tourist-y since 7pm was already fast approaching.

So...

We rented the whole boat.

ALL BY OURSELVES!!

RI…

…VER

CRUI…

…SING!

What’s there to see on the Saigon River?

Well...

Lotsa boats!

Lotsa BIG boats!

The river’s gotta be plenty deep.

They got some really large ships unloading and loading various cargoes at the many piers dotting the river bank.

We spotted hydrofoils, heavily loaded barges and various ships from large to small heading up or down the river.

There’s also a pretty nice view of Mr. Tran Hung Dao, the Ho Chi Mih City skyline and assorted buildings.

From Wiki:
Trần Hưng Đạo (1228 – 1300) was the Vietnamese military Grand Commander and Grand Duke of Thang Long during the Trần Dynasty who is revered as a national hero.

Born as Trần Quốc Tuấn, he commanded the Dai Viet (Đại Việt) armies that repelled three major Mongol invasions in the 13th century. His multiple victories over the mighty Mongol Yuan Dynasty under Kublai Khan are considered among the greatest military feats in world history.

What’s surprising though is the nice fresh river air.

It’s actually not smelly!!

As compared to our super-pungent PASIG river back home.

If you’re looking to get away from all those motorcycles.

The Saigon River is a good place to go.

The one hour trip was more than enuff for us.

Anywayz, we got off the boat and decided to do some night shawpin before meetin up with the Castillo Clan at one of the restos near our hotel.

We bought some nice “VIETNAM" shirts.

And Cara even made a Vietnamese friend!

Afterwards, we finally met up with D’ Castillos.

There they are!!

DINNAH IS SOIVED!!

Make that…

“Miss Saigon with Food Still in her Mouth”

On the way back to our hotel room, a certain pic caught my eye.

Ya all know that I have this thing with Kalabaws…

:)

So naturally – I had to take a picture of the picture below!

KALABAW SURFIN!!

The pic above was part of Rex Hotel's photo display of one of Vietnam's treasured photographers. Sowee I forgot his name.

Does anyone recognize the pic above?

*************************

Saturday began bright and early.

Coz' today would be a whole day adventure!

THE CAO DAI TEMPLE AND CU CHI TUNNELS WHOLE DAY TOUR!!!!

We had arranged for the KIM Travel Bus to pick us up at our hotel at around 9am.

As soon as the we boarded the bus, the tour started out with an intro speech by our Tour Guide.

A genuine VIET CONG DUDE!!

He really fought in the Vietnam War!

Unfortunately, due to the weak sound sy

stem and his tendency to mumble,
I never could really understand what he was saying most of the time.

The only thing that stayed in my head was what

he said about the Vietnam War.

According to him, he now has met many Americans after the war.

And he realized, that Americans and Vietnamese are very similar in their dreams, goals and love of family and peace.

WAR should never be fought between human beings.

It only brings destruction and hate.

AMEN to that bro!

Anyway, we settled in for the long journey…

We should have just taken the bus from the travel office.

Coz' when we hopped on the bus.

It was so full!

So full that Rose, Zachy and Cara sat all the way in front with the driver.

While I had to sit alone at the very back!

Right smack in the middle of two Australian couples.

Uh-oh.

This ain’t gonna be good I thought....

Then Mr. VCTG (Viet Cong Tour Guide) goes….

“It will take us 2.5 hours to reach our first stop for the day – the Cao Dai Temple.”

OMG!

We didn’t realize that the trip would take that long!!

Yeeeesh…..

The super great thing though was that the 2 couples to the left and right of me were very nice people!

They were really fun and nice to talk to.

To my left was Shane (1) and Jill from Sydney.

And to my right was

Shane (2) and Rosie from New South Wales.

Here’s the thing about whole day tour trips.

You absolutely have no choice but to get to know some, most or all of the peeps on the bus.

I mean cmon!

You’re stuck in a bus with each other for one whole day!!

Especially this bus...

Coz' it was so small!

Around 30 to 40 mins in the trip –

Rosabel signaled to me from the front of the bus asking if we could switch places because Cara was sleepin' and they were always pitching forward at the front of the bus due to the constant braking of the driver.

So we changed places.

But then it got worse for her!

Coz' the back of the bus got so JUMPY when we turned off the highway to our first “rest stop”

Good thing that the Jill helped out Rose by making sure that Cara didn't fall over.

But of course. the "rest stop" turned out to be..

The standard “Factory That The Tour Company Partners With In Order To Run Their Business"

Aka: "Tourist Trap"

In this case, the factory was a lacquer factory.

Now, the weird thing was that I kinda liked this tourist trap!

I was definitely not going to buy anything because everything was overpriced.

But it was so interesting to see how they actually make lacquerworks!

Like in this factory they used egg shells and mother of pearl for the decorations.

Everything is so painstaikingly inlaid, carved and crafted by hand.

So much work goes into it!

Anyways, we stopped at he factory for around 30 to 45 mins and then it was back on the trail to Cao Dai!

Here a cool “reflection” pic of Zachy, Rose and Cara all the way up front.

Smell!

Man!

The ride to Cao Dai was grueling!

It got real hot and I was really starting to get real worried of Rosabel and the kids.

How long would it take before the kids freaked out because of the heat, boredom and discomfort?

I was starting to really regret having chosen this whole day thingamajig.

But you know what?

The kids were so well-behaved the entire trip.

(Well, most of the time. :))

In fact, all of our friends on the tour bus kept on mentioning at how well-behaved and cute they were.

Anyway, after around one and a half hour, we finally got to the first stop of our journey.

The CAO DAI TEMPLE

From Wiki:

Cao Dai is a relatively new, syncretist, monotheistic religion officially established in Tây Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926.

The term Cao Đài literally means "high place."

Figuratively, it means that highest place where God reigns. It is also the abbreviated name for God, the creator of the universe, whose full title is Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma-ha-tát (translation: Cao Dai [the] Ancient Sage [and] Great Bodhisattva Mahasattva).

"The noble effort of CaoDai is to unite all of humanity through a common vision of the Supreme Being, whatever our minor differences, in order to promote peace and understanding throughout the world.

CaoDai does not seek to create a gray world, where all religions are exactly the same, only to create a more tolerant world, where all can see each other as sisters and brothers from a common divine source reaching out to a common divine destiny realizing peace within and without."

Here are some in n' out pics of the Cao Dai Temple.

Check out the real colorful designs...

If ya notice, all da tourists are watching from the balcony..

You have to take yer shoes off before entering.
The 3....... (insert pun here)
WOOHOO
Cao Dai Surfin!

Well..

K....

It was really interesting....

It's definitely a must-see for the spiritual/ looking for enlightenment types.

But for a family of 4 -> feisty 6 year old and rambunctious 2 year old included??

Maybe not.

The drive on the tour bus was really tiring, slow and hot.

And the kids aren't old enuff to appreciate the intricacies and detail of the temple and the Cao Dai religon.

Anywayz, we ended the tour at around 12:30pm and proceeded to the "restaurant" where we would be having lunch.


And that resto was actually....

With us in the picture are two of our Israeli friends.


It was real cute though.

Like you had to pass by their living room just to get to the bathroom.

There you would see all their framed photos and even their clothes!

Yes -- in the hallway to te bathroomh, were their clothes cabinets, shoes etc!

Hahahahahahahah!


Imagine around 50 tourists from all over the world coming into your home to check out yer stuff and use your bathroom!

Hahahahahaha!


We had a nice lunch. The food was ok.


And then we moseyed on down to the absolute HIGHLIGHT of our Vietnam Trip.

THE CU CHI TUNNELS!!!!!!

From Wiki:

"The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Cu Chi district of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country.

The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War.

The tunnels were used by NLF guerrillas as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous guerrilla fighters. The role of the tunnel systems should not be underestimated in its importance to the NLF in resisting American operations and protracting the war, eventually persuading the weary Americans into withdrawal."



When you first enter the Cu Chi Tunnels "Experience", they herd you into a video viewing room where they show you a 20 min audio-visual presentation (AVP) that details the histroy of the Vietnam-American Conflict and the Cu Chi Tunnels.

Of course, the AVP paints the USA in a bad light.

I wondered how the Americans with us on the Tour Bus felt when they were watching the AVP.

Hmmmmm...

Especially since the AVP kept on mentioning that a Vietnamese warrior would be considered a hero by the number of Americans they killed.

For example, this Vietnam girl killed almost 30 Americans GI's during the battle of so and so....

She is now American Killer Number One!
And distinguished Vietnam National Hero!


Uhhuh.

"Nice" performance indicator man!

Dig the cool tunnel diorama to the right on the pic above!


After the AVP, you cross a prety large underground tunnel (this is a pretty new tunnel. It gets you in the "undergound" mood though :) )to get to the other side where the Cu Chi Tunnels are located.


Our genuine VC Tour Bus Guide then led us through the tunnel network and the various structures/exhibits.

The first thing he showed us was this real gnarly man-trap.

It's basically a trap-door on the ground that's covered with leaves.

One false step and...


Next was the fox/bunny hole.

It's this real small entrance in the ground that allows you to disappear or suddenly appear when the enemy approaches.

We asked Zachy if he wanted to try gettin' in there it but he chickened out.

Hmmm...

Bugs Buny perfected this technique eons ago right?


Tanks and heavy vehicles moved about in this part -- which is kinda hard to believe since there are so many trees!

Accourding to Mr. VCTG (Viet Cong Tour Guide), it was more open back then because of all the heavy bombing done by the Americans.

Most of the trees we were seeing now were replanted to heal the damage caused by the war.

Take a look of this before pic from the Cu Chi website:


Before

and



Despite the enormous air and ground firepower advantage of the Americans, the North Vietnamese were more than able to stand their ground.

Heck!

They won the whole damn war!

And the Cu Chi Tunnel Network withstood it all.

Even the US tank below was no match!!



We then proceeded to the "American G.I. - Trap" exhibit.

In this exhibit, various traps were lively demonstrated by our guide.

He was giving such a thorough demo that half the time I thought we were going to see an actual demo!!



TRAP CITY!!

What the???

Next on the list was SHRAPNEL Land.

You enter one of the underground bunkers and see how the VC made use of the shrapnel from the bombs being dropped on them.

They used the American shrapnel to manufacture the traps that were just featured above.

How ironic..

And resourceful!



Speaking of Bombs, check out this huge B52 bomb crater left from the war!


Of course, no war exhibit would be complete without a genuine SHOOTING RANGE!!

Yep!

For an affordable fee -- you can fire an AK47, M60 machine gun etc.!

I never realized how loud those guns are up cose.

They're just as loud as the "sawa" firecrackers back home!

It got so loud that Cara was starting to get real scared.

I had to carry her back into the Cu Chi forest where the gunfire was not too loud.

Zachy though was very interested with the guns, bullets and the possibility of firing one.

Eeeeek....

You see, for the last 2 months we've been playing Command and Conquer 3 non- stop.

Ooopsy.....

Na B.I. (Bad Influence) ata.


Anyways, wanna hear how loud it was?

Then check out the vid below
.


After the firing range, our entire tour group proceeded to what was to be the SUPER BEST part of the Cu Chi Tunnels Tour!

ACTUALLY GOING INSIDE THE CU CHI TUNNELS!!!!!

We were pretty apprehensive about going inside the tunnel.

Who was going to go under?

Me only?

Rose and Zachy only?

Would Cara like the fact that Rose would leave her behind?

In the end, we decided that "NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND"

Naks!
A' la Marines!

We all decided to travail headlong into the darkness.

You enter and descend around 10 steps into the belly of the beast.

it's still pretty comfy at that point.

And then you turn to the left to face another flight of "stairs".

This time it's MUCHO narrower and tight!


Then right in front of you lies an absolutely small hole!!

A hole just wide enough to fit my 6'4" 230lb body in!!

There's no way you can turn around inside.

And it's absolutely claustrophobic!!

Thank gawd there were some lights inside!!

Zachy went ahead with absolutely no fear

Rosabel and Cara followed right after.

The height of the tunnel was no prob for cara -- she was standing upright inside and wasn't scared at all.

On the other hand, I had to get down on my hands and knees just to fit inside.

And my backpack kept on scraping the tunnel ceiling.
(Have no idea why I brought my backpack. I should have left it up on top with one of the other tour guides)

We were doing fine and moving/crawling along slowly.

When all of a sudden the lights ahead vanished and we were thrown into pitch darkness!!!


Rosabel started to freak out -- saying that "Cara would FREAK out!" if we went any further.

But the funny thing was..

Cara wasn't complaining one bit!

It was ROSABEL who was freakin' out!

Hahahahaha!

Of course -- since she was getting scared..

I started to get scared for her and for the kids!


I even almost stared to hyperventilate because the size of the tunnel was starting to make me feel claustrophobic and because there was no way we could turn around without full reversing all the way back!

Good thing i was able to catch myself and tell myself to breathe slowly and relax.

To compound things our Aussie friend Shane 2 (who was just the same size as me) was right behind!

I was telling him that we should move back to the entrance....when zachy saved the day!

Zachy went ahead by his own......and saw some light!!

He then started shouting...

"Mom there's light!! Mom there's light!!"

That fixed things in a jif!
Rose was able to gain enough confidence and courage to move forward once more!

Zachy the Tunnel Saviour!!

:)

And the cool thing was that I was able to catch everything on video too!!!

Hahahahahahahaha!

Here it is!






We finally made it to the exit.

I was even able to take a pic of Shane 2 who was right behind me.

Good thing no one farted while were inside the tunnel!!

Hahahahahaha!


Here's a pic of the Cu Chi Tunnel from WIKI:

I wasn't able to get a good shot while were inside because Rose was right infront of me.


Our Aussie friends were so funny

They tried to close the tunnel door on Shane 2 and I to trap us inside!

But they were so helpful too

Rosie -- the woman next to Cara helped Zachy up the steep ladder stairs when he climbed out first.


And we were all laughing about the little "freak-out" episode we had inside.


We all then moseyed on down to the tea hut to get a relaxing spot of tea to celebrate our brave tunnel adventure.


Note: Some peeps on the tour group did not enter the cu chi tunnel that we passed through!! Other peeps went inside and then turned around when they saw the small entrance!

Man -- me family is real brave and crazeeeeee!!


Our last stop on the Cu Chi Tour was to check out how the VC's were able to cook their food underground without being spotted by the Americans airplanes from up above.

Cooking = smoke

Smoke = VC Detection

VC Detection = BOMBS!



It turns out that the VC used multiple vents that pumped the smoke very far from where the actual kitchen was.

The amount of smoke that comes out -- as seen in the pic above is almost neglgible!!



And finally..
As you exit Cu chi.....

Why not buy some tasty...


Check out the Cobra Close Up!

Talk about a Killer Drink!


So after a long, long day our whole tour group/bus headed back to HCMC.

It took another hour and a half to drive back

And by the time we got back it was already 6pm!

Whew!!!


Shane 1, Jill, Shane 2 and Rosie - who I sat with for most of the trip made it real funny though

You see Shane 1 and Jill are driving instructors and they kept oohing, aaahing and laughing at how bad our bus driver was.

So many near - headons and runovers of motorbikes and pedestrians

Rosie even got into trouble for taking a photo of a motorcop ticketing a "lady of the night".

The cop actually threatened her and warned her.

We kept on teasing Rosie that the motor cop was behind us and that she was gonna be thrown in jail!

Hahahahahha!

So when we all finally got off the bus for the final time at HCMC we wished each other such a hearty farewell and good journeys!!

It was so funny coz' we all said goodbye to a number of other peeps from the bus.

It was like we were good friends saying goodbye.


Well....

WE WENT TO WAR RIGHT??

:)

Hehehehehehehhe!




After the trip we decided to go out of the hotel again after dropping off some stuff at our room.

I HAVE NO IDEA where we got the energy to go back out after such a long, epic and tiring day tour.

I guess the energy came from the fact that we were so friggin' HUNGRY!

Also -- as mentioned earlier -- we realy wanted to reward Zachy and Cara for being such awesome well-behaved troopers during the hot and tough journey.


So we took a night pic of the picturesque, French-colonial inspired Ho CHi Minh City Hall right outside our hotel


and posed by the HOTEL CONTINENTAL SAIGON where the great KAT V.C. stayed during her Vietnam visit!


Hehehehehehhehe!

Please visit the blog of Kat.

She has kick-ass posts about her 4-day stay in Vietnam!


After a "nice" fast-food dinner at the Parkson's Mall and some heavy duty well-deserved toy shopping for the super galing kids.

We called it a night.

Well....
Everyone except for one.


******************************

We woke up the next mornin' ready to TURBO TOUR some more.

Especially since we only had till 12 pm before going to the airport to catch our ride back home.

So we made sure to catch in some more touristy - sights and dedicate the day to more shopping

First, we took a cab to the nice-lookin', French colonial style' HCMC Post Office.


It's nice inside!
Cool architecture


and retro wooden phone booths!


Surprisingly, they got some good buys/shopping at the HCMC Post Office Store.

Rosabel scored some nice bags and goodies!!



We then went to Sunday mass at the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral.

After mass, we decided to do some more shopping down Dong Khoi St.

And lo and behold - look what we saw...

Who says that Vietnam don't have the BLING?

That's one major,serious piece of machinery!!

We continued to walk down Dong Khoi towards the famed Vietnam Opera House/Municipal Theater.

From Wiki:

"The Saigon Opera House, an opera house in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is an example of French Colonial architecture in Vietnam.

Built in 1897 by French architect Ferret Eugene, the 800 seat building was used as the home of the Lower House assembly of South Vietnam after 1956. It was not until 1975 that it was again used as a theatre, and restored in 1995."

As you can see -- it's definitely ..FRENCH COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE DAY!

We then hurried down the Vietnam streets to find more places to shop as
12 pm and our ride to the airport was fast approaching.

Our last stop was at a mall near our hotel to get some lunch and do some side-shopping before checking out.

And guess who we bumped into?!

The 2 Australian couples that we were with the whole day yesterday!!

Shane 1, Jill, Shane 2 and Rosie!

We then exchanged email addresses to keep in touch since we totally forgot to do that when we got off the tour bus yesterday.

And we had a picture together.

I wasn't able to take a pic coz' my camera ran out of battery.

Hope Shane 1 can email me the photo soon!

Btw - Shane 1 does some WICKED AIRBRUSH Art! Visit his website:

www.wickedairbrush.com.au

Anyways, we practically ran back to Rex Hotel to met with the Castilo's because it was almost time to leave for the airport.

We rushed past Mr. Ho Chi Minh who bade us a fond farewell!!

and hopped onto the bus after gathering our luggage.

All in all Vietnam was a real great place!

It exceeded all our expectations!!!

Most of my early perceptions/mem'ries about Vietnam were formed by those Rambo, Platoon and Chuck Norris movies.

Vietnam is definitely more than that!!

It's a vibrant, dazzling full-of-life city!!

Definitely worth visiting!!

Thank you Vietnam!!!

P.S.

* If we ever go back to Vietnam, we'll do Mekong Delta Tour and visit the War Remnants Museum. For more info on that (especialy the Mekong Delta Tour) -- Visit Kat V.C's blog!

* Thanks Calai for the Vietnam Travel Guide and map!! We used it a lot!! It was such a great help!!

* Check out our FLICKR Album below for more Vivacious Vietnam Pics!
Jez click the pic!